If you have met me, and walked into the store, you've probably seen me in at least ONE Taylor Swift shirt. If you come in often you've probably seen me in multiple Taylor Swift shirts. That is because since when I was around 9-10 years old, I have been listening to Taylor Swift. I have followed her career and I may have some unpopular opinions (i.e., 1989 is not her best album), but I can definitely say a lot about Taylor Swift.
Her big break into the mainstream came with Fearless. Released in 2008, the original Fearless had the grand crossover hit known as "Love Story". Many may know this and the other smash hit "You Belong With Me". However, the album is filled with gems that showed her massive songwriting potential and what would make her the star she is today. As I review this, I will cover the standard edition along with the bonus tracks included on the Platinum edition, and the Taylor's Version.
To be clear, in case you have been terribly confused, Taylor's Version albums come from an on-going battle with Taylor and her former label selling off her master recordings to a man who played a part in the whole Kanye West "Famous" situation which caused her one of the biggest ruffles in her career back in 2016. She is now re-recording all of her albums she did with Big Machine Records to devalue her original recordings, as she has publishing rights so she can prevent the old songs from being used in promotional material. This may also cause it to become more difficult to obtain her original recordings, so if you do not have her original material on any mediums, I suggest trying to grab it now. I will tell you the differences in the two recordings are very minor, and the vault tracks are well worth the purchase.
The album begins with the country/pop title track "Fearless", which discusses the beautiful first dates and first kisses and falling head first into love. The song stands out quite a bit, and I did not enjoy the re-recording as much as I feel it lost some of the power of the original. Perhaps 30ish year old Taylor singing about her first kiss isn't as powerful as the 18ish year old Taylor singing the song, even more so around 16-17 when recording it.
It shifts to "Fifteen", a song which is more centered around the awkwardness of being a freshman, and her best friend Abigail's heartbreak. Fun fact, Abigail is a real person and they are still friends. This song also sounds better on the original album in my opinion, although there's nothing directly wrong with the new version. I feel she felt some of these songs a bit more strongly in the original recordings, and sadly that cannot be re-created so easily. I do however, feel her new recordings have better vocals and instrumentation. They allow her to shine more rather than being drowned in the back of the recordings at times.
"Love Story" was played everywhere, and is still played quite often on certain stations. This song was inspired by her parents disliking a guy she was dating at the time, and she dreamt up a whole Romeo and Juliet situation for the song.
"Hey Stephen" has been and still is one of my least favorite songs on Fearless. It has grown on me over the years, but the humming part annoys me quite a bit. I love the bridge of the song though, so there are times I will return to it.
Showing some of the beauty of Taylor's ballads begins with "White Horse". This is a very slow guitar ballad discussing heartbreak, and realizing that fairytales maybe aren't as real as they seem when you first fall in love.
"You Belong With Me" comes after, and is still one of my personal favorite Taylor songs. It is honestly quite difficult to suggest you have never had the feeling of, dang it, I am better for you! The song captures the feeling so perfectly and never ages.
We switch back to the ballads with "Breathe", which is one of the two songs I was crying to when I lost my best friend as a teenager. It is a bit more gut-wrenching than "White Horse" to me, with Colbie Caillat on backing vocals.
"Tell Me Why" is a less discussed and less appreciated song on Fearless and I think it needs more love. I love the fiddle at the beginning, and the melody fits the chaotic feeling of a quarrelsome person. Sometimes we don't realize how our indecision can effect the people around us.
This song turns us to one of my absolute, all time favorite Taylor Swift songs in "You're Not Sorry." I think the re-recorded version is actually stronger because it cut back the production and you can really hear the emotion in her voice rather than being drowned on the chorus with vocal layering. Even so, while being some what simplistic of a song, the delivery really brings it together.
This switches to "The Way I Loved You", another I feel sounds better with the scaled back production on the re-recording. This song discusses how love sometimes is full of so many emotions, not just happiness, but "screaming and fighting and kissing in the rain". Or being "so in love that you act insane". I love the lyricism in this song and it keeps me coming back for more.
I am a minority opinion of preferring the piano ballad version of this song, but the standard "Forever and Always" isn't terrible. The issue for me is the song does not have as strong of an emotional delivery on the standard upbeat version. It sounds even choppier on the re-recording.
"The Best Day" is actually a song written to her mother, and how much she had been there for her over the years. While it isn't one I listen to often, I appreciate the sentiment of the song and it still stands out.
The closing of the standard album is "Change", which is actually a song she wrote for the Olympics but it can really apply to any sort of life struggle and finding strength to get through. I like it but I never felt it really fit with the "love theme" of Fearless.
While this will not play into the final scoring, as I prefer to judge the standard albums by their originality since deluxe tracks are often b-sides, I will also be reviewing the other tracks included.
On the Platinum edition, there was a few special tracks:
"Jump Then Fall" I to this day do not enjoy. I was never interested in the melody and she didn't seem passionate when singing it.
"Untouchable" is actually a cover but it is one of my favorite songs still. She adjusted the lyrics a little and made it her own. It is very underrated in my mind.
The "Forever and Always" Piano version, if you have no other reason to get the platinum edition, is worth every penny. The delivery is more powerful and gut wrenching. It feels like it should have been a ballad to begin with.
I always loved "Come in With the Rain", despite it having more of a country twang. She kept that sound on the re-recording too which made me so happy.
If you ever need a song for being one of those teenage girls in love with Justin Bieber or something, "Superstar" is the absolute perfect song for that. I found it so strange she wrote a song about crushing on a celebrity like that.
I didn't originally appreciate "The Other Side of the Door" but it is now one of those Taylor songs I have grown to love as I got older.
On the Taylor's Version of Fearless, she added "Today Was a Fairytale", which was actually a soundtrack song for the Valentine's Day movie. The new recording is as good as the old one!
While "You All Over Me" isn't bad, it does not stand out like the other vault tracks to me and I have never been a big fan of Maren Morris's voice.
"Mr. Perfectly Fine" is a great track and sounds like it could have easily been on the standard edition. The song references someone being totally okay and moved on after a break up while the over is still broken.
"We Were Happy" is actually an unreleased ballad I remembered hearing and I was thrilled to see it get a full release. It is just as powerful as the demo recordings and I am glad a slow ballad made it within these.
"That's When" is another old unreleased track I knew of that I was excited to see get a full release. I wasn't too thrilled originally to see it turned into a duet, but Keith actually did well and I ended up enjoying it.
"Don't You" did not stand out to me and sonically didn't seem to fit with Fearless much.
"Bye Bye Baby" apparently was known under another title to some of the fanbase, but I had not heard it until this release. It is personally one of my favorites of the vault tracks.
Lyrics: 9/10 - I have always loved Taylor for her lyricism. It has had ups and downs over the years, but here it was stellar and showed her great potential.
Music: 8/10 - There are a few musical choices I did not enjoy as much, but overall, it wasn't enough to completely drive me away from any song.
Overall: 9/10 - Fearless is a beautiful album, and whatever version you get of it, I sincerely think you will enjoy it.
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